The present invention relates to a medicine supply apparatus which supplies medicine contained in a tablet case to a container (phial, bag), and the like by the quantity designated by a prescription in a hospital, and the like.
In hospitals or pharmacies, for example, as described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5282/1982 (B65B1/30), a medicine supply apparatus (referred to as a tablet packing machine in the publication) has been heretofore used to dispense the medicine prescribed by a doctor to a patient. In such system the quantity described in the prescription of the medicines (tablets, capsules, and the like) is discharged from a discharge drum (referred to as an alignment board in the above-described publication) in the tablet case one by one, subsequently collected by a hopper and packed.
Moreover, for example in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 40881/1987 the tablet case (tablet container) is provided with a tablet detecting sensor for detecting discharged tablets and a display, and a trouble is displayed on the display based on the sensor detecting operation when no tablet is discharged from an empty tablet case, or when the tablets get stuck.
However, when the tablet case is emptied and then the trouble is displayed as described above, in the actual operation after the start of a tablet supply operation the tablet shortage is detected, so that the medicine dispensing operation is once discontinued to refill the tablet case with the tablets, and subsequently resumed.
Therefore, there is a problem that the tablet supply operation property is lowered, and the dispensing operation efficiency is remarkably deteriorated.
The present invention has been developed to solve such conventional technical problem, and an object thereof is to provide a medicine supply apparatus which can improve the dispensing operation efficiency.
According to the present invention, there is provided a medicine supply apparatus comprising: a plurality of tablet cases stored in a main body case storage part, each tablet case including a container for containing medicines, and a discharge drum for discharging the medicines one by one from the container, and the container is provided with a residual amount sensor for detecting that the residual amount of medicines in the container is lowered to indicate a predetermined value.
Moreover, according to the present invention, the above-described medicine supply apparatus is provided with alarm means for performing a predetermined alarm when the residual amount sensor detects that the residual amount of medicines in the container is lowered to indicate the predetermined value.